The South Carolina Gamecocks, led by head coach Dawn Staley, capped off an unbeaten season with a win in the National Championship Game over the Iowa Hawkeyes on Sunday.
After the game, Dawn Staley was visibly emotional and cried tears of joy. That, in turn, brought out an emotional reaction from one of her former players, A’ja Wilson, who went on social media to share her thoughts on Staley.
“Dawnnie crying ???” Wilson posted with the face holding back tears emoji. “Yes ma’am!!!! Happy tears ! 1 of 1!! A dawg!!! Congrats @GamecockWBB !!”
A’ja Wilson played at South Carolina during a major stretch of success for the program and became a key figure in building it to what it is today. That included winning the 2017 National Championship, which was the first for Dawn Staley and the first for the program.
Following her time at South Carolina, Wilson would go on to be the first overall pick in the 2018 WNBA Draft. She was taken by the Las Vegas Aces and has since won a pair of WNBA Championships there and been named the WNBA MVP twice among a long list of accomplishments at that level.
Clearly, even though she’s moved on from South Carolina and is thriving in the WNBA, A’ja Wilson still has a lot of love for Dawn Staley and the program where she played her college basketball.
It was immediately following the game that Dawn Staley let her emotions bubble over and cried tears of joy while she spoke to ESPN’s Holly Rowe.
“We serve an unbelievable God. We serve an unbelievable God. Uncommon faith, uncommon faith. So proud, so proud, so proud,” Staley said through her tears.
“They weren’t going to be denied. I’m so incredibly happy for our players. It doesn’t always end like you want it to end – much like last year. But my freshies are at the top of my heart because they wanted this. I hope we can erase whatever pain they had last year, experiencing not being able to finish it here. I’m just super proud of where I work.”
The game between South Carolina and Iowa became the biggest women’s single betting event in history, per FanDuel. Meanwhile, 18.7 million viewers tuned in and viewership peaked at 24 million viewers during the game to watch.
Dawn Staley breaks down emotions surrounding national championship victory
Following the game, Dawn Staley broke down her emotions surrounding the win, undefeated season, and her third National Championship as a coach.
“Well it was emotional for me because of how it ended last year, I’ll leave that there,” Staley said. “And I was emotional at the beginning of the game because I didn’t want what happened last year to happen this year. So I was handling things in real-time, not afterwards.”
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